Owner of defunct Escondido Country Club says illegal shrubs, walls must come down immediately

ESCONDIDO 
The owner of the defunct Escondido Country Club says dozens of residents living along the club’s golf course have illegally added shrubs, walls and other structures to the property and must remove them immediately.

Many of the residents are part of a large group trying to preserve the golf course as open space and block the owner, developer Michael Schlesinger, from building a 283-home subdivision there.

Attorneys for Schlesinger sent letters to at least 64 homeowners last week demanding they immediately stop encroaching on the 111-acre site.

The letters are the latest battle in a war between Schlesinger and the country club neighborhood, residents of which joined together last spring to gather signatures for an open space initiative that aims to block development of the golf course property.

Schlesinger has filed a lawsuit claiming the initiative is an illegal taking of property. But the Escondido City Council adopted the measure in August, setting the stage for what could become a landmark property rights case.

A spokeswoman for Schlesinger said the letters aim to rectify mistakes homeowners have made that allowed them to illegally enlarge their properties.

“It’s an attempt to give them a chance to cure the situation,” said the spokeswoman, Erica Holloway. “If it had stayed the country club, no one would have been any the wiser.”

Ken Lounsbery, an attorney for the residents, acknowledged Tuesday that some residents had planted rose bushes or built low walls on country club property. But he said the goal of last week’s letters was scaring the residents.

“It’s revenge and an attempt to intimidate,” he said.

“Folks are in varying degrees of reaction. Some are lawyering up and others are saying ‘what’s the big deal.’”

Jerry Swadley and Jim Ahler, two leaders of the resident group that pursued the open space initiative, didn’t return phone calls Tuesday.

Holloway said the letters weren’t intended to frighten anyone and that sorting out the property lines couldn’t wait until after Schlesinger’s property rights litigation is resolved.

“They’d eventually have to deal with us, or the city or some other legal entity,” she said.

Lounsbery and other residents are also unhappy about what they say is an unsightly chain-link fence Schlesinger constructed around the golf course property in late September.

“It’s purely and simply a spite fence,” Lounsbery said.

Holloway said the fence was constructed for safety purposes and to prevent vandalism and trespassing. She said there had been complaints from residents and city officials about graffiti and other problems on the property.

Lounsbery said Tuesday that the residents still hope to revive the property as a golf course.

He said to make such a plan work financially, the course would have to be open to the public and include a large restaurant that would be open to everyone, not just golfers.

That plan significantly changes how the course previously operated and Holloway said it validates Schlesinger’s assertion earlier this year that he couldn’t keep the course open at a profit. He closed it April 1.

If the land becomes open space, Lounsbery said, the residents have explored several different ways that residents and homeowners could contribute to a maintenance fund. Early estimates indicate residents in the area would pay roughly $350 per year.